


i will find any way, to your wild heart

by orphan_account



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: (eventually) - Freeform, F/F, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Javey - Freeform, M/M, Pining, Secret love, i don't know how to tag, newsbians, ralbert, they're pretty much all gay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:20:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23539774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: At Camp Brewsie, everyone is one big happy family, they have been since the day they got there. Medda Larkin, being the owner of the place, made sure that no one felt excluded, and she taught her counselors to do the same thing. The only problem is, Race didn't want Albert to be his brother. AKA another ralbert friends to lovers story.
Relationships: Albert DaSilva/Racetrack Higgins, Crutchie/Finch, David Jacobs/Jack Kelly, Sarah Jacobs/Katherine Plumber Pulitzer
Comments: 3
Kudos: 12





	1. it's fine, he doesn't know

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is my first fic on ao3 and I'm very nervous about it so if anyone has any suggestions, criticisms, anything, please comment them so I can know what to do. I don't really have much to say other than that but I hope you enjoy chapter one of this story because I know I do. my twitter is @ladyprsephone if anyone wants it, I tweet about newsies and musicals a lot. 
> 
> p.s. if anyone can figure out why the cabins are numbered the way they are I'll give you an imaginary cookie and be proud

It was seven in the morning at Camp Brewsie, the sun was rising over the lake, the campers were beginning to wake up, and Jack Kelly, well he was being an ass as usual. It’s not that he’s mean, he just thinks he’s funny. For example, he decided that this morning would be a great time to play a prank on Race, who was sleeping in the bed beside him.  
“Psst. Jack! What are you doing?” whispered Crutchie from across the room, holding a little boy named Daniel in his arms, calming down from a nightmare.  
“Shut up Crutch I’m trying to fuck with Race!” The little boy’s eyes went wide, and then he burst into laughter.  
“Jackie said a swear word! Jackie said a swear word!” Jack pointed at the laughing child and said,  
“If you don’t tell Medda I’ll get you an ice cream after dinner.”  
“Deal”  
The two boys watched Jack from afar, watching him wind up his arm, pillow in hand, before hitting him square in the face. Daniel and Crutchie tried to hold back a laugh in an attempt to not wake up the other campers, but that plot failed when Race screamed upon impact. The blonde counselor shot up in his bed, resulting in him smacking his head on the low roof of the A-frame cabin, which only made the duo across the room laugh harder, and now a few other campers who had woken up.  
“OW! God damnit.” Race screamed before turning his head to look at Jack, “Jack Kelly, I’m going to kill you.” he said deadpan. Jack took off running, Race following close behind him, yelling various threats.  
“Should we help him?” Daniel asked Crutchie, who was still laughing.  
“No he’s fine, they’ve been doing that since we were six. What we should do is go watch, it’s going to be fun, trust me.” Crutchie replied, quickly grabbing his crutch from the side of his bed with one hand and the boy’s arm with the other. 

“Jack Kelly if you don’t get back here and let me hit you I’m going to tell Davey about what you said last night!” Race shouted, chasing Jack around the grass that lies in the middle of all the cabins.  
“Good luck doing that when he’s asleep.” Jack shouted, looking back at Race. Right as he turned back around to see where he was going, he slammed into another person, knocking them both to the ground. It was Davey. Of course it was Davey.  
“Good luck doing what when who’s asleep?” Davey questioned with a smirk.  
“Oh-um. He was going to-hm.” Jack stuttered out, waiting for someone to come interrupt them so he wouldn’t have to finish the sentence. Race finally caught up with him, smacking him on the back of the head.  
“Don’t test me again, Kelly.” Race reached out to help Jack up, who then in turn helped Davey up.  
“Yeah, yeah. Anway, David. Why are you awake? Cabin eight counselors have breakfast duty today, you guys don’t have to be up for another half an hour.”  
“Oh, well, Medda asked us to help set up for color wars tomorrow, we’ve been bringing the supplies out to the field.” He said, a glimmer of nervousness shining in his eyes for a brief second.  
“It’s true! We had to lug a bunch of crap down there, it was miserable.” Finch said, trying to help Davey.  
“Yup! Cabin five boys are on decorating duty!” Added Elmer, having nothing else to say. Davey and Finch gave him a look, a ‘why are you talking, you're not helping’ look. Elmer’s face turned bright red, immediately being embarrassed. Crutchie walked up behind Race, Daniel having left him for a group of his friends who were sitting on the steps outside their cabin. Finch walked up to him and kissed him quickly, eliciting a loud groan from the group around them,  
“Ew, gross! Get a room!” Jack joked.  
“Says you of all people,” Crutchie retorted, looking at him, then averting his gaze to Davey, making them both turn a bright shade of red. 

An hour later they were all in the cafetiera, trying to control any chaos that was inevitably going to happen. In a camp with a dominantly male population, that was bound to happen. But, of course, the small group of girls were always organized, they were destined to be. The girls owned the camp. With a Brooklyn girl like Sniper keeping everyone in line, a Manhattan girl like Sarah making sure everyone was safe, and a rich girl like Katherine making sure no one missed out on any fun, they were pretty much always happy. All of the boy campers would wait for the girls to come in, most of them crushing on Katherine despite her being way too old for them and a lesbian, but she didn’t crush them, she let them dream. 

Race, Crutchie and Jack were handing out food when they came in. The cabin two boys. Albert, Romeo and Specs. To everyone else it wasn’t that big of a deal, they were just a group of campers and counselors like everyone else, but to Race, oh, but to Race, one boy in particular was a much bigger deal. That one boy being Albert DaSilva. He had been friends with Albert since as long as he could remember. He went to Camp Brewsie when he was a kid just like Race, they all did. All the counselors had been going there for years and they were like a family. No, not like a family, they were a family. The only problem with that is that Race was in love with Albert. He had been since they were eleven. And as far as he knew, Albert had no idea. He had gotten better at hiding it over the years. At first it was hard, really hard. He would always want to just grab him and kiss him during their many nights stargazing at the dock. Or he would always want to tell him his true feelings about him when they were sitting next to each other at breakfast every morning, but he never did. He didn’t know how he would react, so he never said anything. He couldn’t bear to lose him. Albert was everything to him. Albert is everything to him. 

“Mornin’ Toni!” Albert exclaimed, walking right up to Race and swinging his arm around his neck, pulling him into a side hug.  
“Morning Red. You want some eggs?”  
“Of course, can I have bacon too please?” the boy replied, looking at at his best friend with puppy-dog eyes.  
“You don’t need to beg, you know I always save you some. Go get us a seat at the usual table, I’ll be over in a minute.  
“Thank you! You’re the best. See you in a few.” Albert walked towards their table, meeting Specs and Elmer along the way.  
“When are you going to tell him? Because honestly Race, this is getting sad.” Crutchie said, putting his chin on the taller boy’s shoulder.  
“I don’t know what you’re talking about man.”  
“Sure you don’t Mr. ‘I always save you some’” Crutchie snickered.  
“Shut up! I don’t like him.”  
“Yeah, yeah, okay. I’ll just go and sit at our table. The one with ‘albert & race forever’ carved into the bottom of it.”  
“Hey! You said you wouldn’t tell anyone about that!”  
“I didn’t! I am simply mocking you for it because you are hopelessly in love and refuse to do anything about it. Bye now, have fun cleaning up. Mwah!” Crutchie walked away, sliding into the seat right next to Finch. 

Race made himself a plate and cleaned up the serving trays that were on the front tables. He stopped and took a breath. Calming the heart that has been racing since his conversation with Crutchie. It’s fine. He doesn’t know. And he won’t find out. He walked away from his station and started towards the corner table where his brothers sat, well, his brothers and his, something. Albert turned his head when he saw Race walking toward him.  
“Racey! Thank God you’ve finally decided to come join us. I’ve missed my partner in crime, I can’t battle these boys alone.” 

Race is so fucked.


	2. a blanket

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the boys make a plan at breakfast, and a certain blonde has no idea what's going on

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have a few things to say:   
>  \- to anyone that's actually reading this: thank you!! it means alot  
>  \- if you've never been to a sleep away summer camp I'm going to do my best to explain anything very camp like in this   
>  story so forgive me if some things don't make sense  
>  \- i'm sorry this chapter is so short. i wanted to add more but it just didn't seem right to put more in this chapter
> 
> okay, continue on reading. once again, my twitter is @ladyprsephone

Albert left to go get a drink ten minutes ago. It’s been twelve minutes since he started talking to Hotshot. Race knows. He checked his watch. Multiple times.   
“Race. Racer. Racetrack. Racetrack Higgins. Antonio.” A blueberry hit him in the face, knocking the blonde out of his intent stare.   
“Ow! Jesus, what the hell?” He looked around for the culprit.   
“Did you not hear me? I asked you what we’re doing tonight?” Asked Jack. Of course Jack threw the berry at him.   
“Tonight?”  
Davey spoke up, shrugging Jack’s arm off his shoulder, “it’s Thursday. You know, our night off? Our only night off for the next two weeks?” Shit. He forgot. All of the counselors have a rotation where one night, every other week, the guys are allowed to take a night off and the girls watch their cabins’ kids. How did he forget?   
“Oh, shit, right! I don’t really care what we do tonight, you know, as long as it’s not something stupid. Why are you asking me”  
“Because it’s your day to pick what we do. You forgot didn’t you?” This made Race’s face go bright red, and the rest of the boys groan loudly.   
“How did you forget? You’ve literally been asking to pick since before camp even started!” Romeo chimed in.   
“Listen, I just forgot. I’ve been, busy. Whatever, I really don’t care where we go. It's fine. Crutchie! I’m passing on to you, you pick.” Race realized what a dire mistake he made when he saw his friend’s lips turn up into a smirk.   
“We’re going to the drive-in down the road,” he said confidently. He knew exactly what he was doing. That place was the infamous coupling spot for the camp. Every couple that had ever come out of Camp Brewsie had a significant tie to that spot. Whether it was their first kiss, where someone got asked out, where, other things happened. It was an important place.   
“Sounds good!” said Davey.   
“Meet at the front gates at eight?” Jack continued.   
“Perfect, and nobody forget blankets unless you want a boyfriend by the end of the night,  
we all know what happened last time.” Crutchie replied, winking at Finch. He was referring to the time where he forgot a blanket and he had to share with Finch .  
“Hey guys, sorry I took forever, I got stuck talking to Hotshot” this made all of the boys shout various ‘ooh’ sounds at him, “What are we talking about?”  
“Just the fact that we’re going to the drive-in tonight.” replied Specs, looking up from the book in his hand.   
“Seriously? I mean, it’s a cool place but,” he turned to Race, “you picked the drive-in for tonight?” he finished, sounding a bit hopeful.   
“I-um. Well, um.” He stuttered.   
“Crutchie did, dumbass over here forgot about tonight.” Jack answered, saving him a little bit. The alarm that breakfast was over sounded.  
Albert faltered a bit, “oh, okay, cool. I’ll see you guys tonight then. Race, want to walk back to the cabins with me? I know our kids start at the same place today.”   
“I’ll catch up with you. I have to stay and finish up some stuff here. That cool?”   
He faltered again, “Yeah, yeah, of course. Bye Toni.”   
As everyone got up to head back to their cabins, Race grabbed Crutchie by the arm, holding him back.   
“Are you insane?” Race questioned.   
“I’m not sure what you mean.”  
“I mean that you just decided to make us go to literally the worst spot you could think of tonight.”   
“Listen, I’m not saying that you have to tell him tonight, I simply suggested going there because pretty much all of our friends are dating each other. I thought it would be fun! I honestly didn’t think you’d care this much.” Crutchie said, scared that he just hurt his friend.   
“No, it’s fine. I just, I don’t want to lose him, Crutch.”   
“You won’t. Trust me. You two have literally been inseparable since you met. It’ll be fine. If you really don’t want to do anything about this, then don’t. But if you’re just scared, then tell him in a different way.”  
“How the Hell do I do that?”   
“Forget,” he said with air quotes, “a blanket tonight.”   
“That will never work.”  
“Oh really? How do you think I got with Finch?”


	3. idiot forgot it back at camp

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> race is stupid and hotshot is a player

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi! i hope you like this chapter, this one has a bit of drama going on so that should be interesting. also, I feel like these chapters are all very short and I'm sorry for that but the way I'm writing them just makes it difficult to end them correctly so yeah.

Albert was not a fighter, really, he wasn’t. He was never one to take part in the wrestling games that his friends played when they were kids, it just wasn’t his thing. But dear God did he want to punch Romeo in the face right now.  
“Oh Race, thank goodness you’re back! I just couldn’t handle myself all by my lonesome, won’t you please come rescue me? My knight in shining armor?” The young boy mocked in a high pitched voice.  
“Romeo if you don’t stop…”  
“What? What’re you going to do?”  
“I- don’t know. Just, shut up.” Albert said, defeated. Specs came to his aid,  
“Come on Ro, leave him alone. Don’t act like you haven’t had a crush on pretty much everyone in the camp before.” This made Albert laugh hysterically, and Romeo turn bright red.  
“Thanks, Specs.”  
“No problem, I’m always around to mess with Romeo.”  
“Hey! Be nice to me!”  
“No, you’re fifteen. It’s my job to be mean to you.”  
“Anyway! Where the Hell are Crutchie and Finch? We’re going to be late if we don’t leave soon!” Albert asked, trying to break the tension between his fellow counselors. The next minute, as if on cue, Crutchie walked in the door of the cabin, Finch holding the door open.  
“I know we’re late! I’m sorry! I had to fix Race’s outfit.” Crutchie exclaimed, the mention of race making Romeo’s eyes shift to Albert.  
“Why am I not surprised?” Specs said back.  
“I wasn’t either, I was waiting outside their cabin for ten minutes. But that’s besides the point. What are we talking about?” Finch questioned.  
“Just Albert’s unrequited love.” Romeo said, immediately throwing his hands in front of his face to block a punch.  
“Bro! What the fuck?!” Albert screamed. Finch looked him in the eye, asking,  
“Race again?” This caught Crutchie’s attention.  
“Race?” Albert began to panic.  
“Yes, Race. Please don’t say anything. I know he’s like your brother but please I don’t want to ruin anything with him just because I’m a stu-” Crutchie cut off his rambling,  
“Albie, it’s fine. I won’t say anything. I promise.” Albert looked at him silently, giving him a look of thanks.  
“Okay now that we’ve had one breakdown, let’s go before someone has another,” Finch said, adding, “Also! Al, don’t bring a blanket. You know why.” This made Crutchie’s eyes go wide, but before he could say anything Albert said  
“I know I just said I don’t want to ruin anything with him, but Finch, you’re a genius.” And with that, Albert marched out the door, no blanket in hand. 

Elmer had met up with the Cabin Two boys on the walk to the front of the camp and told them that the rest of the boys had left, meaning that Crutchie only had to deal with the stress weighing on his mind for a longer time. It wasn’t stressful in a way that he was upset, more in a way that he was dreading the scolding he was going to get from Race when he sees that Albert didn’t bring a blanket, and that it was kind of his fault. No one really noticed the worry that was painted across his face, except Finch. He grabbed Crutchie’s arm and pulled him away from the group, waiting for them to walk away. “What’s wrong? You don’t seem right.”  
“You’re an idiot.” Finch was taken aback, a look appeared on his face that was a mix between confusion and sadness. Crutchie quickly realized that he had hurt him, adding “okay, I’m the idiot. You’re an angel.”  
“Thank you for the clarification, but I’m still lost.”  
“Okay, so you know how you told Albert to not bring a blanket tonight?”  
“Yeah...I was trying to help him. We all know how that usually works out.”  
“I know. That’s why I told Race not to bring one.” Crutchie admitted, trying to stifle a laugh.  
“Oh fuck. Why didn’t you tell me?”  
“I didn’t think to! I also didn’t know about Albert liking Race, nor did I know you knew about it,” he takes a pause, “why didn’t you tell me!”  
“I didn’t think to!”  
“Well, we just created a mess, didn’t we? Oh well, what’re you going to do about it, let’s go see a movie!”  
“We’re just going to let this happen?”  
“Duh. If this movie is boring we’re going to need some kind of entertainment!”  
“You’re terrible.”  
“I know.” Crutchie smiled, grabbed his boyfriends hand, and pulled him back towards the group, who had already reached their cars and were waiting for them.

Less than five minutes later Finch, along with the five other boys, pulled into the drive-in, parking between Jack’s car and Spot’s truck. The boys had always had a system when they went to the drive in: the couples usually sat together (obviously), the Brooklyn boys mostly stayed to themselves, sitting in the bed of Spot’s truck, and the rest of the boys piled into Finch and Jack’s car. Except Albert and Race. They had always sat on the ground, leaning up against whatever car was behind them. It started out because there was no room for everyone in the small space they had, but they didn’t really mind, they enjoyed each other’s company. When the group arrived, Jack and Davey were already sitting on the top of the car, blankets and pillows surrounding them, Spot, Hotshot, and Joey were already in the bed of Spot’s truck, and the rest of the counselors were in their usual spots. Minus Race. Race wasn’t sitting on the picnic blanket on the ground like he usually was. In fact, the only thing on the ground was his jacket. Albert took notice of this immediately, so did Crutchie, making his face go bright red. Albert, with a bit of concern in his voice, asked, “where’s Race?”  
“He went to go get some snacks.” Davey responded.  
“Where’s his blanket?”  
“Didn’t bring one, idiot forgot it back at camp” said Mush. Albert turned slightly to face Finch and glared. Finch looked at him apologetically, giving him a look that seemed to say I didn’t know.  
“Fan-fucking-tastic. I didn’t bring one either, I figured I could share with him.” Albert heard the sound of someone clearing their voice behind him, when he turned to investigate the sound, he was met with Hotshot standing there.  
“There’s extra room in Spot’s truck if you want to come join us, my blanket is big enough for two.” Albert’s eyes went wide, trying to look to Finch for guidance. All Finch could do was look to Crutchie, and all Crutchie could do was shrug. Fuck it, Albert thought.  
“Sure, why not?” Hotshot grabbed his hand and led him back to his spot, which was now their spot.


End file.
